Apollo's Outcasts

Gr 7 Up—Just after midnight on his 16th birthday, August 22, 2097, Jamey Barlowe's dad wakes him to tell him to pack a bag for a trip. This is easier said than done because Jamey has Lunar Birth Deficiency Syndrome and can't walk without the aid of his mobility unit. Although he was born on the Moon, he has lived on Earth since he was six months old when his mother died in an accident at the Apollo Moon Base. As they are driving, his dad reveals that the vice president has taken control of the White House after the president's untimely death. Now she has accused Dr. Barlowe and other Americans who work with the International Space Consortium of taking part in an assassination plot. Jamey, his sister, and four other children are being sent to the Moon for their own safety and so they can't be used as leverage against their parents. One of the other teens turns out to be Hannah Wilford, the daughter of the dead president. She reveals that her father actually died of natural causes and that Shapar's actions amount to a coup d'etat. While both martial law and resistance spread across the United States, the teens struggle to find something meaningful to do from the distance of the Moon. Steele combines the science fiction of Robert Heinlein with modern technical knowledge and political thriller sensibilities to create a novel that should have wide appeal.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI